endemic to a single nation

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: (1000-20,000 square km (about 400-8000 square miles)) Range includes the Tallapoosa River system of Georgia and Alabama, and Sofkahatchee Creek (a westward flowing tributary of the lower Coosa River system of Alabama) (Mettee et al. 1996, Boschng and Mayden 2004). The species is widespread in the Tallapoosa River system but may be quite rare locally (Cashner et al. 1988). Most of the known range is in Alabama.

Extent of occurrence may be less than 5,000 square kilometers.

Length: 9 cm

• Freshwater

Habitat Type: Freshwater

Comments: This fish occurs over sand and gravel in margins, pools, and backwaters of creeks and small to medium rivers; it seems to be most abundant in shallow sandy backwaters of clean, free-flowing, medium-sized creeks (Cashner et al. 1988, Page and Burr 1991, Mettee et al. 1996, Boschung and Mayden 2004).

Non-Migrant: Yes. At least some populations of this species do not make significant seasonal migrations. Juvenile dispersal is not considered a migration.

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).

Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 6 - 20

Comments: Mettee et al. (1996) and Bosching and Mayden mapped 20-21 collection sites representing perhaps 12-15 distinct occurrences (subpopulations).

Unknown

Comments: Total adult population size is unknown. Page and Burr (1991) described this species as locally common, whereas Boschung and Mayden (2004) stated that the species is "uncommon in many areas" and "its numbers are usually few at any given site."

Spawns probably in late spring and early summer (Mettee et al. 1996).

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N2 - Imperiled

Rounded Global Status Rank: G2 - Imperiled

Reasons: Small range in the Tallapoosa River system, Alabama and Georgia, and the lower Coosa River system, Alabama; generally uncommon and poorly known.

Global Short Term Trend: Unknown

Global Long Term Trend: Unknown

Comments: No major threats have been reported, but degradation of water quality in streams presumably poses some level of threat.

Biological Research Needs: The biology and status of this species are poorly known.

Comments: Fundulus bifax formerly was included in F. stellifer; bifax is separable from stellifer by complete allelic differences at several loci and by details of pigmentation and breeding coloration (Rogers and Cashner 1987, Cashner et al. 1988). Allozyme data indicate that F. bifax is the sister to F. catenatus and that F. stellifer forms the sister group to the F. bifax-F. catenatus clade (Cashner et al. 1992).

The genus Fundulus was removed from Atheriniformes:Cyprinodontidae and placed in Cyprinodontiformes:Fundulidae by Parenti (1981); pending confirmation based on other character suites, this change was not accepted in the 1991 AFS checklist (Robins et al. 1991). See Wiley (1986) for a study of the evolutionary relationships of Fundulus topminnows based on morphological characters. See Cashner et al. (1992) for an allozyme-based phylogenetic analysis of the genus Fundulus .